1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of video capturing and more particularly to capturing video segments associated with a preselected subject.
2. Background of the Related Art
General video capturing techniques, and the hardware and software necessary for implementing the techniques, are relatively well-known and developed. Less developed are techniques and associated hardware and software for capturing specific segments of video concerning or associated with a particular defined subject. For example, it might be desirable to capture all video carried over one or more channels which concerns or is associated with a current event, such as a war or criminal trial. In other instances, it might be desirable to capture all video concerning a particular person, such as a United States president or famous sports figure. Certain experiments have been conducted using image recognition software for identifying particular, preselected images in video which relate to or depict a certain subject for capture. Currently, image recognition technology is expensive and does not provide sufficient accuracy to ensure that all or at least a large percentage of video segments on or associated with a particular subject will be recognized for capture. Furthermore, it is not always certain that a particular searched-for image will appear in every video segment on or associated with a preselected subject. For example, not every video segment on or associated with the president of the United States includes the president's image.
Audio recognition technology also can be used for video capture, e.g. by searching for the speech of a certain person or person(s) and recording the associated video (and, of course the recognized audio). Audio recognition technology, when used for video capture, has faults similar to those of video recognition technology used for video capture: It is expensive and not sufficiently accurate for the purpose.
Certain broadcasters have employed editors who review video and manually index the video segments which comprise the video according to the subject matter to which the segments pertain. Video segments on selected subjects are thus easily located at a later time. This technique generally is accurate but obviously is labor intensive and therefore inefficient.